Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1887-10-17
TABERNACLE SERMON.
DR.. fALAAGES ELOQUENT DISCOURSE
THE FORBIDDEN HONEY.
| Did but Taste Litls Honey, and L., Must Die
The Christopher Wr5n Among Insscs-Ths
Forbidden Fruits That Curss
Man In This Life.
Special telegram to The Register.

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cents have been paid cash dowu in this
church for religious uses and Christian
work during the nineteen years of my
ministry" " said the Rev. T. De Witt Tai
mage, d. D., in answer to the misrepresen.
tations that have been going through some
of the religious papers depreciating the
work of the Brooklyn Tabernacle. After
givingOu the hymn:
t"Our God, our help in ages past
Our hope for years TO come"
DR.. Talmage preached sermon, the sub
ject Of which was, Forbidden Honey, :"
tina tekt being from l. Samuel xiv, V. 43:
Il did but taste little honey with the
end of the rod that was in my hand, and,
10, | must die" DR.. Talmage said:
The honey bee is a most ingenious ar
chitect, a Christopher Wren among in
sects, q geometer drawing hexsgons and
pentagons, a freebooter robbing the fields
Of pollen and aroma, q wondrous creature
of God, whose biography, written by HUI
Der and Swammerdam, is an enchantment
for any lover OF nature. Virgil celebrated
the bee in his fable of Aristaeus, and
Moses, and Samuel, and David, and Solo
mon, and jeremiah, and Ezekiel and St.
John used the delicacies of bee manutac-
ture as Bible symbol. A miracle of
formation ia the bee: five eyes, two
tongues, the outer having a sheath OF
protection hairs on all sides of its tiny
body 10 brush up the particles OF flowers,
its flight so straight that ali the world
knows of the bee line. The honey-COmb is
palace such as no one but God could
plan, and the honey bee construct; its
cells sometimes a dOrmitory, and some
times stOrehouse, and sometimes a ceme-
tery. These winged tOilers first make
eight strips wax, and by their antennae,
which are to them hammer, and chisel, and
squared, and plum-line fashion them TOR
use. Two and two, these workers shape
the wall. lfan accident happens they put
up buttresSes or extra beams 10 remedy
the damage. When about the year 1776
an insect, before unknown, in the night
| time attacked the bee hives all over Europe,
and the men who owned them were in
vain trying Oplan something to keep ont
| the invader that was the terror of the bee
hives of the continent, it was found that
everywhere the bees had arranged for
THEIR OWN PROTECTION,
and built before their honeycombs and es.
pecial wall OF wax with port-hole through
which the bees might go TO and fro, but
not large enough to admit the winged com
batant, called the Sphinx AtropOs.
Do you know that the swarming of the
bees is divinely directed? The mother bee
starts for new home and because of this
the other bees of the hive get into an en-
citement which raises the heat of the hive
some four degrees, and they must die un-
less they leave their heated apartments,
and they follow the mother bee and alight
on the branch of tree, and cling to each
other and bold on until a committee of
two OF three have explored the region and
found the hollow of tree or rock not far
off from stream of water, and they here
set up a new colony, and ply their aromatic
industries, and give themselves to the
manufacture of the slcCharine edible But
who can tell the chemistry of that mixture
of sweetness, part of it the very life of the
bee and part Of il the life of the fields.
Plenty of this luscious product was
hanging in the woods Of Bethlehem during
the time OF Saul aud Jonathan Their
army was in pursuit OF an enemy that by
Gods command must he exterminated
The soldIery was positively forbidden to
stop to eat anything until the work was
done. II they disobeyed they were ac-
cursed. Coming through the woods they
found a place where the bees had been
busy, great honey mandatory. Honey
gathered in the hollow of the trees until it
had OyeItlOwed upon the ground in great
prOfusiOn Of sweetness. All the army
Obeyed orders and touched it not, save
Jonathan, and he, not knowing the mill
tary order about abstinence, dipped the
end Of a stick he had in his hand into the
candied liquid, and as yellow and brown
and tempting it glowed on the end Of the
stick, he put it to his mouth and ate the
honey.
| JUDGMENT FELL UPON HIN,
and but for a special Intervention he would
have been slain. In my text Jonathan
announces his awful mistake: 81 did but
taste a little honey with the eUd Of the
rod that was in my hand, and, 10, must
die Alas, what multitudes of people in
all ages have been damaged by forbidden
honey, by which mean temptation, deli
cious and attractive but damaging aud de-
structive.
Literature fascinating but deathful
comes in this category. Where one good,
honest, healthful book is read now there
are one hundred made up of rhetorical
trash consumed with avidity. When the
boy on the cars comes through with pile
of publications lock over the titles and
notice that nine out of ten of the books are
depicting and injurious. All the way
from New York to Chicago or New Or
leans notice that Objectionable books DOM
iuate. Taste for pure literature is poisoned
by this scum OF the publishing house.
Every book in which sin triumphs over
virtue, or in which glamour is thrown
over dissipation, or which leaves you at
its last line with less respect for the mar
rage institution and less adherence for
the paramour, is a depression Of your own
moral character. The book bindery may
be attractive, and the plot dramatic, and
startling, and the style of writing sweet as
the honey that Jonathan dipped up with
his rod, but your best interests forbid il,
your moral safety forbids it, your God for
bids it, and one taste Of it may lead to
such bad results that you may have to say
at the close of the experiment or at the
close of q misimproved lifetime: II did
but taste little honey with the rod that
was in my hand, and, 10, I must die"
Corrupt literature is doing more to-day
for the disruption OF domestic life than any
other cause. Elopements, marital in
trigues,
SLY CORRESPONDENCE,
fictitious names given at Post Office win
dows, clandestine meetings in parks, and
at ferry gates, and in hotel parlcrs, and
copjngal perjuries are among the damna-
BILE results- When a woman, young or
old, gets her head thoroughly stuffed with
the modern novel she is in appalling peril
But some one will say: The heroes are
sdroitly knayish, and the persons so be-
witchingly untrue, and the turn of the
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